While Sharath is the lone Khel Ratna award recipient, a total of 25 athletes including shuttlers Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, woman boxer Nikhat Zareen, athletes Eldhose Paul, Avinash Sable have been nominated for the Arjuna Award this year.
Taking note of banned athletes like Ashwini Akkunji and Sini Jose training at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre at Sonepat, Sports Minister Ajay Maken on Wednesday admitted that this is a serious issue and they are probing the matter.
Sharath is the lone Khel Ratna award recipient, 25 sportspersons, including shuttlers Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, woman boxer Nikhat Zareen, track and field athletes Eldhose Paul and Avinash Sable, were conferred with the Arjuna Award.
The Indian 4x400m women's relay team, led by Jauna Murmu, Ashwini Akkunji, Anilda Thomas and MR Poovamma, clocked 3.31.39sec to win the gold medal at the PTS Athletics Meeting in Samorin, Slovakia. Only 16 countries are eligible to compete in the relay events of track and field at the Rio Olympics, and as a result of their performance in Slovakia last night, India has improved its 4x400m women quartet's world ranking to 15th position which is a step towards that goal. As per the IAAF regulations, the 2016 OG qualification standards has to be attained between the period, January 1, 2016 to July 11, 2016. The Samorin performance is the Indian relay quartet's second fastest timing and improves its average from two-fastest races to 3:30.24sec.
India's six top women athletes, including Asian Games double gold-medallist Ashwini Akkunji, were, on Friday, handed one-year bans for flunking dope tests earlier this year, virtually ending their chances of participating in the London Olympics next year.
Hit hard by one of the biggest doping scandals in the run-up to the Olympic Games, India's athletics team, including a couple of medal hopefuls, would hope to seek solace and redeem their reputation with some strong performances in London.
Athletics Federation of India's plan to include dope-tainted Ashwini Akkunji in the women's 4x400m relay team in the ongoing Asian Championships was nixed by the competition technical delegate on the ground that it would violate IAAF rules.
The athletes, Mandeep Kaur, AC Ashwini and Sini Jose, who were part of the 4x400 metres relay gold winning quartet at the Commonwealth and Asian Games, and Jauna Murmu, Priyanka Panwar and Tiana Mary Thomas, tested positive positive for anabolic steroids in May and June this year and were suspended, and their Ukrainian coach Yuri Ogorodnik was sacked.
Hit hard by one of the biggest doping scandals in the run-up to the Olympic Games, India's athletics team, including a couple of medal hopefuls, would hope to seek solace and redeem their reputation with some strong performances in London.
Double Asian Games gold-medallist Ashwini Akkunji was on Saturday named in the Indian women's 4x400m relay squad for next month's World Championships in Moscow just days after completing a two-year ban for a dope offence.
India has nothing to boast of in terms of achievements at world stage in athletics, but the country has topped in the number offenders caught for doping under IAAF rules.
Dope-tainted athlete Ashwini Akkunji's London Olympics dreams are virtually over, as her 'B' sample also tested positive for anabolic steroids. She now faces the prospect of a two-year ban. Another quarter-miler, Priyanka Panwar's 'B' sample also tested positive for anabolic steroids.
The doping scandal in Indian athletics grew in proportion with two more athletes, including the country's new golden girl Ashwini Akkunji, testing positive for anabolic steroids hours before the departure for Japan for the Asian Championships.
NADA Director General Rahul Bhatnagar said that the WADA had filed an appeal against the reduced penalty and the matter would come up before the NADA Appellate panel on February 15.
The Anti Doping Appeal Panel (ADAP) has upheld the one-year sanction imposed on India's top quarter-milers with a rider that paves the way for them to take part in the Olympic trials.
Asian Games double gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji, who failed the dope test, on Wednesday claimed innocence and blamed the vitamin supplements that they consumed on the recommendation of their coach as the source of the anabolic steroids.
The Olympic Gold Quest, founded by sports legends Prakash Padukone and Geet Sethi, has provisionally suspended the funding it gives to drug-tainted athlete Ashwini Akkunji, one of the sports persons it supports, and is awaiting the result of her "B" sample.
After giving the country a gold in women's 4x400m relay, team member Ashwini Akkunji said they were under pressure to finish first in the Commonwealth Games in front of home crowd as India had bagged a silver in Melbourne four years ago.
The Indian women 4x400m relay quartet of Jauna Murmu, Ashwini Akkunji, Anilda Thomas and M R Poovamma enhanced its Rio Olympic Games qualification chances by winning a gold medal at the PTS athletics Grand Prix with an impressive timing of 3:31.39.
The 27-year old Lakshmanan, who bagged a gold medal at the recently concluded Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, has already qualified for the World Championships to be held in London next month.
Quartermiler Ashwini Akkunji, who early this month completed her two-year ban period for a doping offence, is contemplating to run in the women's 4x400m relay trials on July 20 for a place in the Indian quartet for next month's World Athletics Championships in Moscow.
India clinched a gold medal in women's 4x 400m relay in a sensational race to finish sixth overall as the curtains were drawn on the 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Pune on Sunday.
Neeraj Chopra, on Saturday, became the first Indian javelin thrower to claim a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, with a season's best effort of 86.47m in the final, in Gold Coast.
Triple jumper Renjith Maheswary finished sixth in the heats and the women's 4x400m relay team last as India's campaign in the World Athletics Championships ended in Moscow on Friday.
World University Games silver medallist shot putter Inderjeet Singh achieved the qualification mark for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 with a throw of 20.65m on the second day of the 19th Federation Cup at Mangala Stadium, in Mangalore, on Saturday.
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